Sarah Palin Reminds Me of Hitler


Sarah Palin is going more than rogue these days.  Her book tour should be making Americans of all political persuasions very nervous.  Today is day four of the tour and she is in western Pennsylania  where more than a thousand people started lining up last night to actually get a chance to see the divine one.  According to her publisher, Palin's memoir sold more than 300,000 copies its first day--pretty stunning numbers if you ask me. The book's print run has already been increased from 1.5 million copies to 2.5 million copies.  Who knows where it will all end, but one way or another, Palin will end up with beaucoup bucks.  No wonder resigning as governer was not a problem for her.

Last week Sarah Palin  sat down with Oprah as part of her media blitz.  I, along with millions of others, tuned in and listened with rapt attention.  My conclusion?  This is a very dangerous woman with the power to twist truth and the vanity to think that she is doing it for the good of others and not for herself.  She is shrewd, narcissistic and  is into myth making as much as Hitler was.


Like Hitler she is a larger than life figure who weaves flattering national fantasies that bear very little resemblance to reality. She has  charisma and speaking ability and  she launches a powerful appeal to those who feel angry, fearful, and misunderstood, using paranoia and half truths to make her case.

I could almost see the torch light parades forming as I watched her romance the TV camera and Oprah's audience. She painted herself as the underdog and innocent  victim--a role many Americans identify with, especially those who have lost homes, jobs, and health insurance or who never had much to begin with.  They see her as their champion and her simplistic notions and twisted truths as an answer.

Palin vs. Hitler

Hitler rose to power in a period when Germans felt frightened and taken adantage of-- when economic conditions were terrible and the Weimar Republic was just not working.   When people feel threatened and  powerless, they are ripe for exploitation and that is what I see Sarah Palin in the process of doing. She is exploiting people for her own ego gratification and I don't think it is a mere political career that she wants.  I think she is looking for  more-- much more.

I see in her the megalomania of the true narcissist.  America today has much in common with Germany in the 1930's. People are disenchanted with  their leaders and are looking for answers.  There was a world wide financial crisis then too.  The notion of American exceptionalism that Palin embraces so heartily echos Hitler's notion of the master race and the special role of the German people. I can hear those  American militias in the heartland  now, cleaning their weapons and  talking about the evils of socialism, Obama, Liberals and gun control.  Scary, very divisive stuff.

We are part of a world community that cannot afford to let nationalism, isolationism, xenophobia and ignorance triumph.  Let us hope that " Going Rogue" is not Palin's  " Mein Kampf"